What are the most significant occurrences of tornadoes?

Answer 1

Some of most significant tornado events include:

• The Great Natchez Tornado of May 7, 1840. This tornado devastated the towns of Natchez, Mississippi and Vidalia, Louisiana, killing at least 317 people. Most of those deaths were in boats on the Mississippi River. The death toll may very well have been much higher. Some bodies, especially from those who were just passing through, were likely carried downstream and never counted. There were also unconfirmed reports of deaths on nearby plantations. This is listed as the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

• The St. Louis, Missouri tornado of May 18, 1896. This F4 tornado tore through portions of St Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people. As with the Natchez tornado, the death toll may have been significantly higher, as some bodies may have been carried down the Mississippi and never counted. This is listed as the third deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

• The Tri-State tornado of March 18, 1925. This F5 tornado was the farthest-traveling, fastest-moving, longest-lasting, and deadliest tornado in U.S. history. It tore a path of devastation 219 miles long through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, devastating many communities and killing at least 695 people. It killed 234 people in Murphysboro, Illinois alone. At least 53 people were killed by other tornadoes in the same outbreak.

• The Deep South tornado outbreak of March 21-22, 1932. This outbreak produced numerous violent tornadoes across the South, with the worst impacts in Alabama. Ten of the tornadoes in the outbreak were destructive enough to be retroactively rated F4. The worst of these tore through rural commumities south of Birmingham, killing 49 people, at the time the deadliest single tornado in Alabama history. The overall death toll of this outbreak was more than 330.

• The Tupelo/Gainesville tornado outbreak of April 5-6, 1936. On April 5, an F5 tornado tores a swath of destruction through Tupelo, Mississipi, killing at least 216 people. Entire families were killed in some homes. On April 6, an F4 tornado (possibly two tornadoes) tore through Gainesville, Georgia, killing at least 203 people, including 70 in a single building. In both cases the death tolls may have been sigificantly higher, as there is evidence that many of the black victims were not counted. These tornadoes are the fourth and fifth deadliest U.S. tornadoes respectively. Additional deaths from other tornadoes brought the death toll of this outbreak to at least 454.

• The Glazier/Higgins/Woodward tornado of April 9, 1947. This fast-moving F5 tornado started in the Texas Panhandle, where it completely destroyed the towns of Glazier and Higgins, killing 68 people. It then crossed into Oklahoma and devastated the town of Woodward, killing at least 107 people. Additional deaths on farms brought the death toll to 181. It was the sixth deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

• The Flint/Worcester Outbreak of June 7-9, 1953. Significant tornado acitivity on the Plains on June 7 was followed by a major outbreak across Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio on June 8. Several violent (F4-F5) tornadoes touched town. The worst of these was an F5 that devastated the communities of Flint and Beecher in Michigan, killing 116 people. On June 9, as part of the same system, a rare F4 (possibly F5) tornado tore through Worcester, Massachusetts and surrounding communites, killing 94 people. Between these and other tornadoes in the outbreak, 249 people were killed.

• The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of April 11-12, 1965. This devasting tornado outbreak overwhelmed the fledgling warning system of the time. Officially, 17 tornadoes were rated F4, though a few of these were likely F5. This is the second-highest number of violent tornadoes in a single outbreak. The worst actitivity was across portions of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. The deadliest of these tornadoes was an F4 (possibly F5) storm that devastated Dunlap, Indiana, killing 36 people. It was one of four violent tornadoes that occurred in the area around Goshen and Elkhart, Indiana. Two F4 tornadoes about 30 minutes apart followed nearly identical paths through the same communities in southern Michigan. Those two tornadoes had a combined death toll of 44. In all, the outbreak killed more than 270 people.

• The Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974. With 148 torndoes confirmed in less than 24 hours, this event stood as the largest single-day tornado outbreak for 37 years. It still stands as the most intense outbreak on record, with 24 F4 tornadoes rated F4 and 6 rated F5. The still-primitive warning system was completely overwhelmed. The worst tornado of the outbreak was an F5 that tore through Xenia, Ohio, killing 32 people. A second F5 that hit Guin, Alabama may have been one of the most intense of the 20th Century. The small town of Tanner Albama was nearly completely destroyed after having been hit by an F5 and an F4 tornado 30 minutes apart. The tornadoes of this outbreak killed a total of 319 people.

• The Daulatpur/Saturia tornado of April 26, 1989. Relatively little information is available about this tornado. It tore a path about 50 miles long through the cities of Daulatpur and Saturia in central Bangladesh. Poor construction, high population density, and a lack of warning led to a catestrophic death toll of over 1,300, making this the deadliest tornado in world history. The lack of detailed information makes it impossible to accurately rate this tornado.

• The Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999. Although not particularly high on the list of deaths, this F5 tornado still stands out. It tore through several suburbs of the Oklahoma City area, particularly Bridge Creek and Moore, killing 36 people. Excellent warnings, including the invention of the "tornado emergency" as a new type of warning, are estimated to have saved 600 lives. The cost of damage from the tornado amounted to $1 billion, making it the costliest tornado in U.S. history at the time. It would hold that record for 12 years. Doppler Radar recorded a wind gust to 302 mph within the torn, the fastest wind ever recorded on Earth.

• The Super Outbreak of April 25-28, 2011. This event was the largest and most destructive tornado outbreak in U.S. history. Over the course of the event, over 350 tornadoes touched down, including 207 on April 27. This outbreak produced 15 violent tornadoes, the third highest number for any outbreak on record. Of these, 4 were rated EF5, only the second occurence of more than two F5/EF5 tornadoes in a single day. Most of the damage and deaths were in Alabama. The worst tornado of the outbreak was an EF4 (possibly EF5) that tore through the cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham on April 27, killing 64 people, injuring 1500, and costing $2.4 billion. This marked it as the second deadliest tornado in Alabama history and, at the time, the costliest in U.S. history. At almost the same, a time long-tracked EF5 tornado tore through several towns in northern Alabama, including Tanner, killing 72 people, marking it as the deadliest tornado in Alabama history, and the deadliest tornado in the U.S. since 1955. The tornadoes of this outbreak killed 324 people. No tornado outbreak in the U.S. had produced a death toll of this magnitude since 1974.

• The Joplin, Missouri tornado of May 22, 2011. This EF5 tornado devastated the south side of Joplin, damaging or destroying a full third of the city. In all, this tornado killed 158 people, marking it as the seventh deadliest tornado in U.S. history and the first to kill more than 100 since 1953. It also took the title of costliest U.S. tornado with damage estimated at $2.8 billion. Largely due to this tornado and the outbreak at the end of April, 2011 became the second deadliest tornado season in U.S. history with a total of 553 fatalities. Unlike previous seasons with similar death tolls, this ocurred with an advance warning system in place.